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From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Subject: Re: NEW ZEALAND.   was: The Netherlands
Message-ID: <Dvy87y.MBz@cwi.nl>
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References: <4tssdu$5t7@coco.cri.dk> <Eric.Vandermeer-0508961337320001@news4.inter.nl.net> <4u97i6$565@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 01:02:22 GMT
Lines: 18

In article <4u97i6$565@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz> mathwft@math.canterbury.ac.nz (Bill Taylor) writes:
 > Now then.  There is a very persistent folklore here, that when Abel Tasman
 > (of Holland) discovered the land, he called it "New Zealand" after the Danish
 > island.    This is TOTAL RUBBISH!    After all, why on earth would he want
 > to do that?  Even his wife wasn't Danish.  He named it after Zeeland, the
 > Dutch sea-land province, and so entered it on his charts.

Can we put an end to this folklore too?  Abel Tasman did *not* call it
"Nieuw Zeeland", he called it "Statenland".  Later it was called
"Nieuw Zeeland" by his superiors from "Noord Holland" (Amsterdam to
be more precise).  (And he himself had no relation to the Dutch
province of "Zeeland" at all; being born in Lutjegast in "Noord Holland".
Why his superiors called it as they called it remains a mystery.  And,
BTW, Abel Tasman was sacked after complaints of man-handling his
inferiors.  And, also BTW, he called Tasmania "van Diemensland".)
-- 
dik t. winter, cwi, kruislaan 413, 1098 sj  amsterdam, nederland, +31205924098
home: bovenover 215, 1025 jn  amsterdam, nederland; http://www.cwi.nl/~dik/
